It could be just me, but I always wanted in a game magic (if you are a mage or somthing like that) worthless magic. And what I mean by that, is take like...a tree and turn it into food. Or take some mob in a game and turn it into a..toad...or somthing of that sort.

It would not really have a combat purpose, and not really much of a purpose at all. But I always thought it would deepen the.."feel" of being a mage. I dunno...maybe just me.

In EQ there was this mage spell, the eye of something or anohter. It created a giant eye, and you could move it around an look through the eye while your character stayed put.

So the idea was you could scout ahead with the eye, and if the eye got attacked it would die, but you woujldn't lose any hit points.

The eye wasn't really useful. It didnt' have that much time or duration, and you really didn't need to scout ahead, but it was still a cool spell to have.

I agree, it would be fun if there were useless spells in the game, like make your hair look like it's on fire, and stuff like that.

IN D&D there are cantrips. Little spells that dont' do combat damage.

I used to love cantrips in D&D! I agree that there should be more things like this in MMO's, anything that gives a sense of fun to a game is always worthwhile, isn't that why we all play them in the first place?

There would be almost limitless options with what a smart dev team could do in an MMO with some sort of cantrip system, I'd love to see it.

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

In EQ there was this mage spell, the eye of something or anohter. It created a giant eye, and you could move it around an look through the eye while your character stayed put.

So the idea was you could scout ahead with the eye, and if the eye got attacked it would die, but you woujldn't lose any hit points.

The eye wasn't really useful. It didnt' have that much time or duration, and you really didn't need to scout ahead, but it was still a cool spell to have.

I agree, it would be fun if there were useless spells in the game, like make your hair look like it's on fire, and stuff like that.

IN D&D there are cantrips. Little spells that dont' do combat damage.

http://www.dungeonmastering.com/gaming-life/creative-cantrips-lots-of-clever-uses-for-prestidigitation

The cantrip thing sounds sweet (oh and WoW has that "eye" thing for the hunters its called "eagle eye")

But yeah one of the funnest "rpgs" i've ever play'd was Fable, and that was because it had the sweetest magic ever,

But yeah...I dunno its somthing I would think would be awsome and liked by most people, doubt it'd be very hard to code. But it seems to have been ignored alot by Devs.

(Another thing I always liked, was in FFXI the mages could "teleport" people, which was sweet, and very handy for other players, and it was a great way for mages to make gil.

Everquest is the best example of useless magic that was mildly fun given from Devs with good intentions. If you were an Enchanter you could change your appearance to any race which was... mildly useful. You could also use a low level illusion to look like an object that was keyed to your surroundings. If you were outdoors you became a rock I think, and if you were inside of a bank you'd become a coin. Lol at the players that would try to click on you to pick you up.

Bards in the Kunark expansion could get singing steel greaves and boots. You could click on the pants to get a loaf of brown bread, and click on the boots to get drinking water. I'm not making this up. Hell YES I clicked on my pants non stop in raids and threw my pinched loafs all over the ground like a maniac hehehehe.

I really enjoy the idea of fluff magic, or small magic intended for a caster to reflect their teaching tools used to get where they are as adventurers. Nearly every game skips it now which is kinda sad.

People have different tastes, maybe its just that you are part of the people who feel that way.

I definitely look for games to have utility spells. Matter of fact its one of the first things I examine a class's skill tree for. Its the little things that add flare, options and roleplaying possibilities to a game. The ability to summon common items, transformations, these are all great additions to any mmo. I loved the enchanter class in EQ1 and turning into a tree as a druid. Teleportation, speed, levitation, wolf form...love it all :)

In WoW there is this Warlock spell, the eye of something or another. It created a giant eye, and you could move it around an look through the eye while your character stayed put.

So the idea was you could scout ahead with the eye, and if the eye got attacked it would die, but you wouldn't lose any hit points.

The eye wasn't really useful. It didnt' have that much time or duration, and you really didn't need to scout ahead, but it was still a cool spell to have.

Vanguard is good with this. They may not have a lot of outright useless skills, but a lot of their skills are presented in a very flavorful way that wouldn't really be necessary if all you were concerned about was the raw stats (such as a ranger who sets up campfires to regenerate his team out of combat, instead of making it some kind of faceless spell).

Druids can turn into a wolf. Doing this imparts no bonuses whatsoever. You just become a wolf.

Psionicists can turn into other races.

Monks can teleport to and behind their target for execution of a special attack. It adds nothing to combat power, but it's fun to use it to jump between mobs and close distances.

Rogues can pickpocket junk off enemies, although there is a very small chance you will get something useful.

Rangers and Sorcerers can stealth. It adds nothing to combat but it lets you get to places unhindered.

Originally posted by Dewm

 

 

          It could be just me, but I always wanted in a game magic (if you are a mage or somthing like that) worthless magic. And what I mean by that, is take like...a tree and turn it into food. Or take some mob in a game and turn it into a..toad...or somthing of that sort.

It would not really have a combat purpose, and not really much of a purpose at all. But I always thought it would deepen the.."feel" of being a mage. I dunno...maybe just me.

Necros in Everquest could talk through there pet as if it was the one talking. It did absolutely nothing for you but it sure was fun when you was camping a named mob with a buddy.

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

In EQ there was this mage spell, the eye of something or anohter. It created a giant eye, and you could move it around an look through the eye while your character stayed put.

So the idea was you could scout ahead with the eye, and if the eye got attacked it would die, but you woujldn't lose any hit points.

The eye wasn't really useful. It didnt' have that much time or duration, and you really didn't need to scout ahead, but it was still a cool spell to have.

I agree, it would be fun if there were useless spells in the game, like make your hair look like it's on fire, and stuff like that.

IN D&D there are cantrips. Little spells that dont' do combat damage.

http://www.dungeonmastering.com/gaming-life/creative-cantrips-lots-of-clever-uses-for-prestidigitation

That spell was far from useless.  There was a bug (which was fixed from Luclin on) that if you cast the eye into a wall it would spawn in a random spot.  In areas like NToV and places you couldn't scout due to faction it was great for finding bosses for your guild.  I'd do it all the time along with CoHing level 1 rangers into various safe spots to scout.

I can't remember since it's been a while, but couldn't mage summon fireworks too?  Those served no pratical purpose.